4 ms·

One of my favorite NFL players was Vegan. He would uhh... run people over and generally out class people constantly. A quick google search of "NFL players who a

One of my favorite NFL players was Vegan. He would uhh... run people over and generally out class people constantly. A quick google search of "NFL players who are vegan" reveals several well known players. These are among the strongest, most athletic people to have ever existed. So whatever the challenges of being vegan, I suspect "being weak" is certainly not one of them.

mr_mitm 3y ago
Have they always been vegan though? A glance at [0] shows they all decided to go vegan at some point in their adult life. Growing big and strong on a regular diet and then turning vegan does not exactly support the vegan lifestyle. Even this vegan powerlifter [1] turned vegan only at 32 (vegetarian at 26). [0] https://www.livekindly.com/vegan-nfl-players/ https://www.livekindly.com/vegan-nfl-players/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrik_Baboumian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrik_Baboumian
- cloverich 3y ago
  > Have they always been vegan though? That's a fair point. Another athlete I do follow who is ripped[1], has been reportedly Vegan since he was 2. Generally speaking when I think of building muscle in the gym, I think of protein powder and supplements as opposed to eating ever larger quantities of meat; I don't think that's controversial? AFAIK the only thing you need if you are vegan is a Vitamin supplement. I'm not a Vegan promoter or anything -- I'm not even sure what a Vegan eats for most of their meals (but would love to learn). But having some background in nutrition I'm skeptical there's any shortcoming to being Vegetarian, Vegan, etc, that a very simple supplement (i.e. like one regular vitamin) wouldn't overcome. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daLfGBK67xY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daLfGBK67xY
  - wyager 3y ago
    > I think of protein powder and supplements Most protein powder is whey-based (not vegan). Whey protein is generally inferior to muscle, connective tissue, etc. but it's typically a lot cheaper. It's better than plant-based alternatives though. Plant protein efficiency is terrible compared to animal protein efficiency, so any moderately muscular vegan is likely eating prodigious quantities of mediocre protein sources like peanut butter. > AFAIK the only thing you need if you are vegan is a Vitamin supplement. This is what some vegans will tell you, but you only need to look at the ones saying this to know it's not true. I know some vegans who could be mistaken for non-vegans from a fitness standpoint, and they put quite a lot of work into maintaining their diet. More than just taking a few vitamin pills. OTOH, you can achieve better results by just eating a lot of steak...
wyager 3y ago
Yes, the top 0.001% of genetic freak athletes with the world's best nutritionists and fitness consultants can get away with a highly constrained diet (for a while, at least). BTW, famous vegan athletes almost never start vegan, and tend to quickly retire due to increased injury rates and slowed recovery.
- myshpa 3y ago
  Some epistemically sound research to back up your claims? Otherwise it's just a load of bull ;)

mr_mitm 3y ago

Have they always been vegan though? A glance at [0] shows they all decided to go vegan at some point in their adult life. Growing big and strong on a regular diet and then turning vegan does not exactly support the vegan lifestyle. Even this vegan powerlifter [1] turned vegan only at 32 (vegetarian at 26). [0] https://www.livekindly.com/vegan-nfl-players/ https://www.livekindly.com/vegan-nfl-players/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrik_Baboumian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrik_Baboumian

cloverich 3y ago
> Have they always been vegan though? That's a fair point. Another athlete I do follow who is ripped[1], has been reportedly Vegan since he was 2. Generally speaking when I think of building muscle in the gym, I think of protein powder and supplements as opposed to eating ever larger quantities of meat; I don't think that's controversial? AFAIK the only thing you need if you are vegan is a Vitamin supplement. I'm not a Vegan promoter or anything -- I'm not even sure what a Vegan eats for most of their meals (but would love to learn). But having some background in nutrition I'm skeptical there's any shortcoming to being Vegetarian, Vegan, etc, that a very simple supplement (i.e. like one regular vitamin) wouldn't overcome. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daLfGBK67xY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daLfGBK67xY
- wyager 3y ago
  > I think of protein powder and supplements Most protein powder is whey-based (not vegan). Whey protein is generally inferior to muscle, connective tissue, etc. but it's typically a lot cheaper. It's better than plant-based alternatives though. Plant protein efficiency is terrible compared to animal protein efficiency, so any moderately muscular vegan is likely eating prodigious quantities of mediocre protein sources like peanut butter. > AFAIK the only thing you need if you are vegan is a Vitamin supplement. This is what some vegans will tell you, but you only need to look at the ones saying this to know it's not true. I know some vegans who could be mistaken for non-vegans from a fitness standpoint, and they put quite a lot of work into maintaining their diet. More than just taking a few vitamin pills. OTOH, you can achieve better results by just eating a lot of steak...

wyager 3y ago

Yes, the top 0.001% of genetic freak athletes with the world's best nutritionists and fitness consultants can get away with a highly constrained diet (for a while, at least). BTW, famous vegan athletes almost never start vegan, and tend to quickly retire due to increased injury rates and slowed recovery.

myshpa 3y ago
Some epistemically sound research to back up your claims? Otherwise it's just a load of bull ;)